Week 2 - Analysis of Reading 15 August 2011
"The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses" - Juhani Pallasmaa
- Pallasmaa became increasingly concerned about the opinions about "vision" as a sense as well as the effect of other senses and how architecture derives from it.
- The title "The Eyes of the Skin" Pallasmaa wished to express the significance of the tactile sense for our experience and understanding of the world.
- "It is evident that 'life-enhancing' architecture has to address all the senses simultaneously and fuse our image of self with our experience of the world."Pallasmaa states successful and great architecture comes from a fusion of our senses and the experiences we have with the world. "Architecture articulates the experience of being-in-the-world and strengthens our sense of reality and self; it does not make us inhabit worlds of mere fabrication and fantasy.
- Pallasmaa also states that significant architecture makes us experience ourselves as "complete embodied and spiritual beings."
- "Architecture, as with all art, is fundamentally confronted with questions of human existence in space and time, it expresses and relates man's being in the world." Pallasmaa explains the importance of architecture, and how it stands as a remembrance of the human race and what they have experienced against time and evolution.
- "Architecture is our primary instrument in relating us with space and time, and giving these dimensions a human measure." Pallasmaa explains how non-physical elements such as space and time can have human qualities due to the use of our senses.
- Balance of the senses: when designing, there is an equal balance of the senses, so that it is not biased in one sense
Week 1 - Analysis of Reading 8 August 2011
"Hapticity and Time"- Juhani Pallasmaa - Notes on Fragile Architecture
Key Points in the Reading:
- a reading about the evolution of Architecture over the years
- return of exploring the "senses" and applying it into architecture; Vision is more obvious but Touch- takes it to a new dimension
- movement in the space - arranged use of furniture to create flow/movement
- architecture turning into an art form of instant visual image instead of just ordinary buildings
- designing under the senses, "Every significant experience of architecture is multi-sensory; qualities of matter, space and scale measured by the eye, ear, nose, skin, tongue, skeleton and muscle"
especially the sense of Touch: "Touch is the unconsciousness of vision, and this hidden tactile experience determines the sensuous quality if the perceived object, and mediates messages of invitation or rejection, courtesy or hostility."
- architecture isn't only about occupying space- it is a deep defence against the terror of time- "The language of beauty is essentially the language of timeless reality."
